The Sacramento Bee

Editorial: Latest numbers put new focus on reforms in city high schools.

Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, September 4, 2008

The first part of the state's new data system, accurate figures on dropouts, already is having the right effect on schools and districts. The new system means that fewer kids are likely to fall through the cracks, disappearing without a trace.

In our highly mobile society, kids and families move a lot, and schools ought to be able to track them. Now they can do that with individualized information. And schools are on the spot to follow through.

To be sure, the new information was a shock to schools, districts and parents when it came out in July. In every district in our region, the data meant that dropout rates increased compared with the old reporting system.

In Sacramento City Unified, for example, the entering Class of 2007 dropout numbers doubled under the new data system, from 508 to 1,014 students. "How could this happen?" asked school board president Manny Hernandez. "We've worked so hard on the dropout issue."

The major culprit: Schools were reporting that kids have transferred to another school. The new individualized data was showing that many of these kids never turned up at another school. These "lost transfers" now have to be counted as dropouts.

The good news is that the new individualized information has created an incentive for school districts to try to find these students. And they have.

For example, in Sac City Unified, high school registrars found 225 lost transfers and were able to document that these kids had enrolled at other schools. That makes Sac City's actual number of dropouts 642 students for the entering Class of 2007. That's still higher than reported under the old system (508), so the city schools still have more dropouts than the old numbers indicated. But at least now, the numbers are real.

Those numbers indicate that Sacramento's schools have a lot of work ahead of them.

Hiram Johnson High School is a case in point. Under the old system, that school reported 82 dropouts for the entering Class of 2007. Under the new system, that grew to 191. In the last two months, the school has found 71 lost transfers, so the revised dropout number is 120 – still the highest number of dropouts in the district. Way too many kids at that school still are falling through the cracks. (Hiram Johnson had 223 graduates in 2007.)

Luther Burbank High School, in contrast, has improved somewhat. After finding lost transfers, Luther Burbank went from 103 dropouts reported under the old system to 98 today. (Burbank had 353 graduates in 2007.)

The new data system is providing an incentive for schools to make sure that students who leave actually enroll in another school, which is a good thing. But change can't just be about creating a well-coordinated process to document when students come and go.

The real task is finding new ways to keep students in school and grabbing their interest. As interim Superintendent Susan Miller notes, Sac City Unified's new small high schools have helped these last five years. The district's reform effort has kept more students who start in ninth grade enrolled through 12th grade.

But this is no time for complacency. With these new dropout numbers, the school board and school board candidates should give renewed attention to reforming and improving the performance of the district's high schools.

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